Keys to Quality Infant Care

Keys to Quality Infant Care Fall 2011

3 Primary Temperaments to the Infant’s Personality • Low-key • Feisty, Irritable • Easygoing • Responding to their personality type can help a child adapt and flourish in a group setting Get to know each baby’s unique personality

Your body provides a safe haven for an infant • “To be tender, loving, and caring, human beings must be tenderly loved and cared for in their earliest years … caressed, cuddled, and comforted (Montagu, 1971, p. 138) • Provides a sense of well-being • Promotes independence Provide physical loving

Find ways to get close to every infant; they each need your attention, not just the ones that call out for it • Speak lovingly and frequently to them • Allow your facial expressions to show you care for them • They may not understand words, but they do understand TONAL NUANCES Create intimate emotional connections

Tempo is important in human activities – develop a smooth flow to daily routines • Avoid hurrying the child or interrupting them harshly • Create loving rituals during daily routines (dressing, bath times, nap times, feeding times) Create harmonizing tempos

Your presence – reassuring • Be available – Margaret Mahler’s “refueling station” (Kaplan, 1978) • Create loving rituals during daily routines (dressing, bath times, nap times, feeding times) Encourage courage and cooperation

Babies who develop secure emotional relationships have had their “distress signals” noticed (Honig, 2002) • Hone your detective skills, learn developmental milestones • Stress signs • Dull eyes • Tense shoulders • Grave look • Compulsive rocking • Frequently clenched fists • Stress times • Drop off • Day’s end Address stress

Pay attention to their actions • Provide appropriate stimulation toys and sensory experiences • Provide physical play • Play sociable games Play learning games

Observation provides information that lets teachers determine when and how to arrange for the next step in a child’s learning experience Observe babies’ ways of exploring and learning

Respond to their coos • Have a conversation with them • Use slow, simple talk (‘parent babble’) • Infants prefer high-pitched voices • Allow the baby a chance to talk, too • Talk about everything! • Daily reading Enhance language and literacy in everyday routines

Children master many language, physical, and social skills in the first years of life • Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development Encourage mastery experiences

Babies learn empathy and friendliness from those who nurture them • Allow children to play together • McMullen et al. (2009) observed that “positive socioemotional interactions were rare in some infant rooms” • What can be done to change this? Promote socioemotional skills

Keys to Quality Infant Care